Struggling with a story: Wicked Seduction

For weeks now I've edited Wicked Seduction on and off but continue to feel as if I'm missing something vital to the story. It has sex. Wow does it have sex!

Could be that I've read it over so many times I'm way too close to it now, but I'm not happy with it. I'm going to let it sit for another week or 2, read it over once more, then be done with it.

How long can I keep at it before the story isn't what I wanted and is not just edited, edited, edited?

And can I just say it's driving me batty!

There you have it, what's happening with this story. Forgive my lateness with it!

Cursed Love: A Wicked Demon Story

I've been editing this story one last time. I know, I finished it in, what, November? But between the holidays, other writing projects, and well, lack of time, it's taken me this long to get back to it.

I really enjoyed writing Nikki and Cooper's story and plan to do at least one, hopefully two more books to chronicle their story. For now, I want to make sure that Nikki's emotion really comes off the page and that Cooper's fear for and protectiveness over her grips the reader.

With luck, Cursed Love will be out in February!

Nikki Kent had spent her life running from the monster inside her. When she found Cooper Marquez's ranch, she knew she found home. Unfortunately, her demons followed her.

Cooper Marquez knew his lover had secrets, but hadn't figured on one quite like this. No matter what she thought, he wasn't going to let her go through anything alone.

Together they go on a journey to discover the secret to her curse. But when Nikki discovers the truth about her demon, will she leave Cooper for his own safety? Or can he convince her that nothing will stand in his way.

This is a paranormal contemporary romance with ancient Native American spirits, drug cartels, and one hot rancher to make it all better. I hope you enjoy it, since this is a departure from much of my other work.

Finishing a story (Weekly Goals)

I am done. Yes I am. I am finished with The Devils' Pawn: A Hellfire Club Erotique and am very, very happy with the product! OK, there's still that final step of editing it, then sending it off for edits, but that's minor compared to being done!

This is my first completely m/m story and I have to say I'm glad I did it. I know there are people who aren't into that, and that's fine with me, to each their own. But I love this story--there's sex (obviously) and romance, and a true building of a relationship. It was hard doing that with 2 men, I'm not sure why but I had to really work at it, but in the end, love is love.

Hellfire Club Erotique series

The Devil's Pawn: A Hellfire Club Erotique:
Half-Turkish merchant, Malik Trent, has joined the Hellfire Club to foster trading contacts. The fact that the Hellfire Club is London’s most notorious sex club has its own allure. However, when he spots Graham Rawley he doesn’t bargain for the appeal of the other man.

Graham has his own problems, but has fatalistically accepted them. He’s going to enjoy his last days on Earth, and is using the Hellfire Club to do it. But when Trent learns what devil is after Graham, he refuses to let his lover accept his fate.

As they follow the trail of death and deceit surrounding Graham, they learn all the secrets certain members of the Hellfire Club have fought—and killed—to keep hidden. Trent won’t allow Graham to be the next to die, but will he be the target instead?

Listening to readers

I do-listen that is.

Often I hear how authors refuse to read reader reviews because they only like the good ones & refuse to read the bad ones. OK, total agreement there!

But the irony there is that as a reader the first reviews I go to are the bad ones--are they simply complaining about the price? Was there a problem with delivery? Basically, are these complaints not about the book but something else? Is the bad review: This book sucks but with no backup to it?
Those are ignorable reviews. Nothing you can do about them and any reader scrolling through the reviews can see what they are for themselves.

Now the constructive criticism reviews: Those I love!

And those are the ones I listen to. In the year I've been seriously writing (concentrating on writing as opposed to letting other things interfere) I've found that no matter the level of erotica, the details, the description, that what I'm writing is still a romance. And people who read romances, be them sweet, sensual, or ménage, want the connection between characters. They want that love match-m/m, f/f, m/f/f, m/f/m, m/f, it doesn’t matter.

Love is love and let's face it. I'm writing romance. an erotic romance, a ménage romance, but a romance.

Now just because I feel that a critque is constructive it doesn't mean I'll alter my writing style to accomodate that one critique. It does mean I'll take it into consideration. I certainly hope that as time progresses my writing simply gets stronger and stronger. While I write erotica, it doesn't mean that the story aspect of the erotica is any less engaging than the sexual aspect.

So yes, I listen to my readers. And that's the reason it's taken me over a week to go through copy edits for Risqué my new Regency Ménage Tale. Because I want to make sure the level of emotional connection between characters is present, believable, and deep enough to show their love for each other.

Missing something

I've read this story over. Twice. And I swear I'm still missing something! Just can't put my finger on it. I suspect it has to do with gossip and the fact that that scene isn't strong enough.

Tonight--Regency gossip and the famage it can do.
Tomorrow--fixing the blurb. That last line is still really weak.

The young widow Mrs. Alexandria Prescott enjoys her untainted reputation. In private, however, her sexual appetites know no bounds. An encounter with Kane Huntington changes that. Alix finds she can't help herself or her desire to test his notorious reputation and invites him to prove his mettle in her bedroom. They enjoy their pleasurable games until jealousy's green eyes comes between them in the form of the Brent, the young Earl of Rowan.

Unwilling to let themselves be bested in this game of passions, Alix and Kane use Brent as a pawn in their manuevers against each other. However, Brent has other ideas about his future and what--and who--it'll involve. He skillfully turns the tables on them and, despite the scandal, creates an image of the perfect menage. But things never go as planned and when their secret is threatened will the three of them run? Or will they discover a love they've never known.

And this is why we edit

For that matter, this is why we self-edit and double check our historical research!

Sunday I received my copy edits for Seduction of a Proper Lady. They weren't bad, and I agreed with 99%of the changes: a couple comma mistakes, an insertion of a word here and there, the normal. Except for a rather embarrassing and glaring mistake.

I used the English nobility title incorrectly. Glaringly so.

Nope, no idea what happened, brain freeze? Or melt as the hot summer may be. Whatever the case, I'm glad it was caught before it went to up!

Needless to say, I'm spending one more week going over the story. Just to double check there are no further glaring mistakes in there!

FINISHED!

Actually finished Seduction of a Proper Lady on Sunday. And then I crashed. I don't remember much of Monday & Tuesday, other than the sure, let's edit...yeah right. More like I'll stare at the computer screen and my eyes will cross and then I'll give up and fall back to the couch since 7 pm is entirely too early for bed.

I'm editing it this weekend. Which is when I wanted to start my Flowers in the Tower story, but that'll have to wait until next weekend. The good news on that is: The plot is done! The bad news is that my deadline is August 1.

But since my editor was kind enough to give me some leeway for Seduction, I'm hoping she'll also realize by turning that in mid-July there's no way I can crank out another story in 2 weeks. Nope, my brain will melt for certain.

Editing

It's nice being back in the story. And amazing how stress falls away while writing. I can immerse myself in a different world and enjoy every second of it.

Shame I can't do that on a regular basis, but last month all I wanted to do was collapse into bed after yet another long day.

Seduction of a Proper Lady: A Regency Ménage Tale. This is the second in my loosely-related Regency ménage series. Meaning the only thing they have in common are Regency, ménage, and me.

There will be no character cross-overs. At least there are no plans for such.

Setting: April, London 1815

Our intrepid heroine: Laurel, is in Town for her second Season, determined to find a man to marry whom she can tolerate at the very least. When a major and his captain take a shine to her, will she succumb to their advances? Or will propriety win out? And with it her chance at love?

Slow

April was not what one might call a good month. I don't know where those 30 days went but am I ever glad they're over!

I'm getting back into my writing now, slowly going over what I have for Seduction of a Proper Lady and my next ménage project, Flowers in the Tower. I've missed (or will miss in a few days) my deadline for Seduction but am unbelievably grateful to my editor for her understanding and willingness to extend my deadline.

This month I'll finish Seduction, June and July will be Flowers, then July ad August I'm going to try and get back into my contemporary FBI serial hunter ménage series, with a full-length, Killer Vacation, to go with my short Killer Valentine.

Editing

One of the hardest parts of writing is editing, rather self-editing. Going over all those words you put on screen and cutting them. Well not all of them but there are words that definitely don't need to be in the story.

Today I'm going over my Valentine's Day 20K word ménage, appropriately titled Killer Valentine, one last time before shipping it off. Er, emailing it on out. I'm positive I missed something but at least I know I won't have glaring errors to be embarrassed over later.

Up next: Finish plotting my full-length FBI agent ménage. I've decided to set it in Hawaii with a serial killer on the loose and internal strife affecting my intrepid threesome.

What I'm reading: An Everlasting Bite by Stacey Kennedy

Copy Edits

Am excited I received my copy edits in the emil last night! Will be working on them this weekend in between trimming the tree and baking.

Editing

Sucks. Editing sucks, big time!

On the other hand, reading your story for the fifth consecutive time, aloud, in a eerily quiet room and hoping no one walks in on you, does have its advantages.

Finished  second apocalypse story last night and instead of reading it just after finishing, I thought I'd read the first one, the m/m story. I missed a lot. Not in terms of grammar or spelling or such, not even in terms of plot cohesiveness.

It all goes back to that world building. I knew I needed to add stuff, I made that cool list and all, and used every point in the second story, a sexy m/f/m ménage. And then had to go back and add in all that in the first, the m/m one.

I really love this story now. There's more meat to it, no pun intended, more reasons, more world.

Lists

Apparently, I'm a list person. I have now created a list of things I'd like to see in my 3 current stories. Not specifics, but generalities that can be tweaked to fit into each distinctive story. I'm positive this list is not unique but I'm sharing anyway. If you have others, please feel free to add them!

Character background
Character growth
What's going on in this world
Why is it going on in this world
What the end goal is
Who the main players are
Is there an amorphous bad guy or specific one
External or internal conflict
How does the world affect the characters

As you can see, they're listed in the order I thought of them ad scribbled them down. Probably missing some, a other additions, suggestions, specifics?

I lied

Not really, I mean I didn't intend to lie at least. I intended to read and read and read. Alas, I did more editing than actual writing, but still managed to somehow add in 2400 words. Seriously, I don't know how that happened, but it did.

Very happy with this, shows that even with stress my muse doesn't totally abandon me!